Category: Articles
Imperial Airways – further information
HF: Islay Jamieson added the following comment on 9th July 2024 attached to our article, Imperial Airways – including first scheduled flight into Hong Kong 1936 ”Just reading this…researching my father’s career…did you ever come across Maurice Curtis my father who was the local manager for Imperial Airways in Hong Kong…my mother flew out to Hong Kong on a flying […]
» Read moreThe Peak Tram history
HF: Standing at 552 metres above sea level, the Peak is the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island and a natural signaling post for incoming cargo ships in the nineteenth century. The more privileged early residents, however, found it the perfect retreat from Hong Kong’s scorching summer heat. Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell’s summer home (circa 1868) was built there to […]
» Read moreMa On Shan Iron Mine – underground film, 2014
Billy Clarke has forwarded a link to a film made by HK URBEX of a visit by the group underground at Ma On Shan Iron mine. I think the visit was in March 2014. From their website “HK URBEX visits the once booming iron ore mine. Between 1953 and 1976, this was home to thousands of iron ore miners. But […]
» Read moreTaikoo Dockyard Managers – Kenneth Edward Grieg, 1926 -1937
IDJ has sent a series of articles about managers at Taikoo Dockyard: “Kenneth Edward Grieg, was born in Perth in 1882 and went to school at Perth Academy. At sixteen he entered on an engineering apprenticeship in the Caledonian Railway locomotive shops at Perth but went to the North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. at Wallsend-on-Tyne in 1900 to complete his […]
» Read moreSang Sang Mining Company – connection to Needle Hill Tungsten Mine, 1935?
Hugh Farmer: The article, Needle Hill Tungsten Mine, says that, “The deposit was discovered in 1935 by a civil engineer, Mr G Hull, who was working on the construction of the Jubilee Reservoir (now known as Shing Mun)…Hull obtained a mining licence in the same year but the lease was subsequently transferred to Marsman Hong Kong China Ltd. Marsman undertook prospecting […]
» Read moreThe Hong Kong Society of Model & Experimental Engineers – First Exhibition 1986
IDJ has sent this article about the HKSMEE’s first model engineering exhibition which took place in February 1986. The exhibition was formally opened, but in rather jolly way, by Mr Peter Quick, the then Managing Director of the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation, who drove a model locomotive through a banner and around the 300ft oval track. The article also says […]
» Read moreHR Butters – first Labour Officer and author of the 1939 Report on Labour and Labour Conditions in Hong Kong
The Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography contains an article about Henry Robert Butters written by Norman J Miners. Permission to use the article here has been granted by HK University Press. Butters was born on 11th April 1898 in Glasgow, Scotland and died on 1st March 1985 in Stirling, Scotland. Neither David Bellis of gwulo.com nor Hugh Farmer of this site have […]
» Read moreAbandoned Railway Lines, Stations and Tunnels in Hong Kong…and more
Hugh Farmer: Marcus Wong has been in touch after I wrote to him asking if I could publicize his website. He describes himself as a “self confessed train nut” and lives in Melbourne, Australia. His father is from Hong Kong. He says he hasn’t been able to visit here as much as he would like. This is not obvious from […]
» Read morePostage stamps and the postal history of Hong Kong, Part One
posted: august 3rd 2026. HF: The postal system in the British colony of Hong Kong began in 1841 when the Royal Mail established the first General Post Office in the region. Between 1841 and 1862 no stamps were issued, and postmarks were used to certify payment of the postage instead. The earliest postmarks were used by military field offices and […]
» Read more